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SoliForum - 3D Printing Community → Hacks & Mods → Upgrading to the Azteeg X3
A tip for anyone like me who fried their previous electronics, I bought a cheap plastic container at the dollar store and cut some holes in it to route the wires through. I used this to protect the board while printing Ian's offsets then mounted it properly.
It would be nice to see some kind of an update in this thread. Is there a firmware that works with the X3 that I should know about? Perhaps a new guide on how to make this work? Should I be using and older firmware? Maybe one that was made back when this thread was fresh?
Are you sure you don't want to post this question in a few more threads? I don't know if the community is aware you need help. 
Seriously though, I know these challenges can be frustrating sometimes but if I got through it you can. In my case it took reading through the same stuff over and over again.
The Azteeg is RAMPS compatible so you can use any firmware (including stock Solidoodle) that supports RAMPS. You just have to modify it as Ian clearly lays out in the first post. For example, I installed my Azteeg with modifed stock Solidoodle firmware and now I'm using Lawsy's fork with Rincewind's z-wobble compensation patch which can be found on this forum.
The only tricky thing for me was the endstops. Basically it was trial and error for those. I would upload a change and then manually click them while connected to RepetierHost. Then I would look for then endstop reached message. This took quite some time but eventually I got there.
For reading, I would suggest:
This thread.
The reprap wiki page on the Azteeg
The reprap wiki page on RAMPS
The reprap wiki page on Sanguinololu
The Sanguinololu page has the most detailed write-up and has some useful info that applies to any motherboard update.
You could write the new guide as you struggle through. That's basically what Ian did. Doesn't help you but helps the next guy. Or even tell us in detail here what you've done, how far you've gotten and where you're stuck. The responses will freshen up the thread and hopefully help you get it running. I don't think we can help much more without more detail.
The reason I posted so many times is because it is getting hard to get help around here. It seems to me that there are not as many people that are as into this as they used to be.
My Sanguinololu went bad a month ago, I ordered the X3 the next weekend and just got it last week. In that time I prepared the new firmware and did as much research as possible.
I was getting nothing at first but now I can get some motor movement. I think the endstops have a lot to do with it.
Do I need to rewire the endstops or no? I was going to do that before the board arrived but as I read further down it seems that that is not necessary. I guess I can try it.
I can load the "Test Code" but I don't see the purpose of that.
I'm looking at the wiring diagram and see pins (D4, D5, D6, D11) to plug in fans and LEDs, these pins seem to do nothing.
Did I just get a bad one? I've e-mailed back and fourth with Roy and I think I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to send it back.
I don't understand why it would be so much different now than when Ian did this write-up, but I guess it is.
If I ever do get this working, I will do a fresh write-up and even post my firmware. Make this as plug-and-play as possible. I will be a hero. 
Also, what is "Error0"? I see that a lot and M999 is not helping.
I was getting nothing at first but now I can get some motor movement. I think the endstops have a lot to do with it.
Do I need to rewire the endstops or no? I was going to do that before the board arrived but as I read further down it seems that that is not necessary. I guess I can try it.
More details might help. I don't own an Azteeg X3, but recently installed Ramps 1.4 and had a two problems with the endstops.
1) I had to use X & Y MAX and Z MIN properly (documented on this forum muiltiple times)
2) I learned that the firmware (configuration_adv.h) is configured to use #define ENDSTOPS_ONLY_FOR_HOMING
AND Pronterface ignores this homing when manually attempting to move X and Y passed the end stops (ie. ramming occurs). RH honors homing values to prevent ramming.
M999 is the thermistor not connecting. The motors won't do anything as long as there is no signal from the thermistor, and once it loses connection everything will stay disabled until there is a restart. D4-11 is for gcode controlled stuff, so that is where you put a nozzle fan rather than always on fans.
Is hard to help if you only say it's not working. You mentioned endstops in one post, otherwise I wouldn't have known where to start. If you say what exactly isn't working, any errors that are showing up, and what you have tried so far, then I might be able to give you some ideas.
I haven't had any time to deal with this but I just noticed that Ian's X3 looks different than mine. I'll have to wait for the next 3 day weekend to mess with it. In the meantime, what are the differences between the two?
Nothing that makes a difference in the conversion. The newer version (which I have now due to a replacement) has extra pins for two more motors, thermistors, and heaters. I don't know if there is firmware to support it yet, but when there is you can use an Azteeg X3 to run 4 extruders.
I can get movement in one direction for each motor.
The endstops are probably reading as always on try changing
const bool X_ENDSTOPS_INVERTING = false
to
const bool X_ENDSTOPS_INVERTING = true
or the other way, depending on what it is in your firmware.
Ian, I PMd you a bit ago. You can ignore that. I learned that it is indeed, absolutely necessary to rewire the endstops. I thought I was changing that in firmware but apparently not. Thank you very much for all that you do, for example, putting up with people like me.
My next question, (I know, I'm a pain in the ass) is that terminal in the corner the the only / best place for the extruder motor fan and LEDs? I know I asked before about pins D4, D5, D6, and D11. I know they are g-code controlled but the diagram suggests that is where fans and LEDs can go. How do I enable those and why would I want g-code controlled LEDs? Is this where the nozzle fan goes and do I still need the MOSFET like I did for the Sanguinololu?
Again, thank you. I owe you many beers.
You can also put the fan and LEDs under the screws with the wires from the power supply. You might want to do a mix, it's tough to juggle the thin fan and LED wires with the much thicker power wires and get it all tightened down without one of them slipping out. Maybe put the LEDs in that corner terminal and put the fan in with the power.
Those other pins can be plugged into directly without the MOSFET hack which is much more convenient. For a nozzle fan, there is an entry in Pins.H for fan. The default is 9, which is the terminal for the second extruder heater. Change that to the pin you put the fan on. You could put the extruder fan there and have it turned on in the start.gcode. Then you wouldn't have all the noise when the printer is idle. I don't know how you would control a second fan, I suppose you would need to add another M code in the firmware for it, but I don't know how to do that. You could do the same for LEDs if you wanted some sort of gcode controlled light show.
What do I have to change to make the extruder extrude properly?
Should only be steps/mm which you can get to through the EEPROM Config in Repetier. If it is running backwards, I think there is an entry to reverse the motors in firmware.
I'm printing right now and it seems to be working fine. It just seemed to be behaving differently than it was before when I was loading the filament. Is there anything in firmware that needs attention? I'll recalibrate everything when I'm done printing your standoffs.
SoliForum - 3D Printing Community → Hacks & Mods → Upgrading to the Azteeg X3
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